The progression from normal cells to tumor cells involves a loss of negative mechanisms of growth regulation, including resistance to growth inhibitory stimuli and a lack of dependence on growth factors and hormones. Traditional cancer treatments that are based on radiation or cytotoxic drugs rely on the differences in growth control of normal and malignant cells. Traditional cancer treatments subject cells to severe genotoxic stress. Under these conditions, the majority of normal cells become arrested and therefore saved, while tumor cells continues to divide and die.
However, the nature of conventional cancer treatment strategies is such that normal rapidly dividing or apoptosis-prone tissues are at risk. Damage to these normal rapidly dividing cells causes the well-known side effects of cancer treatment (sensitive tissues: hematopoiesis, small intestine, hair follicles). The natural sensitivity of such tissues is complicated by the fact that cancer cells frequently acquire defects in suicidal (apoptotic) machinery and therapeutic procedures that cause death in normal sensitive tissues may not be effective on cancer cells. Conventional attempts to minimize the side effects of cancer therapies are based on (a) making tumor cells more susceptible to treatment, (b) making cancer therapies more specific for tumor cells, or (c) promoting regeneration of normal tissue after treatment (e.g., erythropoietin, GM-CSF, and KGF). Each of these, however, has limited effectiveness. As a result, there continues to be a need for therapeutic agents to mitigate the side effects associated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy in the treatment of cancer. This invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.